One step forward, another one back.
A weekend that saw the Capitals play their most complete game of the season in a 4-0 shutout at Eastern Conference-leading New Jersey on Friday also saw them drop a sloppy 3-2 decision at home to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
It was a deflating loss in front of a second consecutive sell-out crowd at Verizon Center. But the Caps (30-28-8, 68 points) have a quick chance to rebound with tonight’s home game against the streaking Boston Bruins (35-23-6, 76 points), who have won six in a row.
“We have to remember that no matter what the score is or what time of game it is we have to play our game,” said Caps goaltender Olie Kolzig. “When we’ve played that way for 60 minutes there aren’t too many teams in the league that can stay with us.”
Unfortunately, that only happened in the third period against the Maple Leafs (29-28-10, 68 points), who pulled into a tie with Washington for 11th in the conference. The top eightmake the Stanley Cup playoffs and both teams are now six points behind Philadelphia (33-25-8, 74 points), which holds down the eighth spot.
There are plenty of teams the Caps would rather see than Boston, which has won eight of the last nine meetings between the two teams. All four wins last year came in the shootout. But if they hope to make the playoffs the Caps better end that slide against the Bruins, whom they face three times over the next two weeks.
Ironically, the Caps have a better shot at the No. 3 seed in the conference playoffs than the No. 8 spot. That third position goes to the Southeast Division winner. Washington is five points behind first-place Carolina (34-29-5, 73 points) with two fewer games played and still two games left vs. the Hurricanes. But that’s what made the Toronto loss all the more disappointing. The Caps had cut the division lead to three points with Friday’s win and immediately gave it back. With just 16 games to go, time is running short.
“In a game where we couldn’t get outworked we were outworked,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, who likely will return to new goalie Cristobal Huet tonight against the Bruins. “It’s unacceptable.”
